Contraceptive museum in Canada
I was wondering if you have all this history compiled in a book, like the History of Contraception Museum has. They also have posters, which is another idea. [No, no book yet, but I'm working on one. Posters are a good idea, as are many other ideas. The question is time. When the museum is finally out in the public I hope to have a gift shop that would sell such things and a lot more, and would have of course an Internet outlet - maybe this site. Read my ideas for the future museum.]
(For your information: History of Contraception Museum, Janssen-Ortho Inc., 19 Green Belt Dr., North York, Ontario, Canada, M3C 1L9)
Very interesting all the work you have done. [Thanks! It's not over.]
Reproductive health organization
Dear Colleague:
We at EngenderHealth (formally AVSC International) are currently in the process of updating the "links" page of our website, www.engenderhealth.org. While researching the Web sites of related organizations, we found yours to be particularly relevant to our mission of improving the health of women and men worldwide. As a result, we would like to request to be listed on your "links" page. If you would like to include a brief description on EngenderHealth with the link, we can provide the following:
"Founded in 1943, EngenderHealth is a nonprofit organization that has been working internationally for over 30 years to support and strengthen reproductive health services for women and men worldwide. Since its inception, its work has improved the health and lives of more than 100 million individuals in 90 countries."
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.
Thank you for your consideration,
Olga Kozak
Communications Assistant
EngenderHealth
440 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10001
***Please Note***
On March 8, 2001, AVSC International changed its name to EngenderHealth.
Holistic products
Hello,
My name is Jennifer Reed and I have providing safe, environmentally sound products for families and women for nearly 2 years. We would like to be considered for a link on your site. We value sites like yours because those who really want healthy alternatives can find good sources. We would also add a link to you from ours. Please let us know if this would be possible.
Our site is found at http://www.bewellstaywell.com
Respectfully,
Jennifer Reed
Natural Solutions, Holistic Beauty and Health
4868 Whinnery Road, Winona, OH 44493
330-222-4103
Playgirl magazine to review MUM
Hello Harry,
My name is Michele Zipp, the managing editor of PLAYGIRL magazine. We love your site. I'm writing up a great review of it for our January issue. I'll be sure to send you a copy, if you like. [Yes!]
Thank you for this odd, but fabulous Web museum. Is it official? Are you open for visitors in Maryland? [The physical museum, in my house, closed three years ago, but I'm looking for a public place for it.]
Let me know.
Peace&Pleasure,
Michele Zipp
Are women the only animals that menstruate?
Hello, and Bon jour.
I'm a guy, and I was just kind of curious. I'm just interested to know, for no particular reason, if human women are the only females in nature who menstruate in the manner that they do? Specifically with regards to blood. It just seems that I cannot recall any other life form whose females menstruate in a blood form. It just seems that it wouldn't be a good idea surrounded by lions and tigers. Are humans the only life forms on the planet who menstruate in blood, or are there others who menstruate in the same manner? Is this an evolutionary result, or something unique to human women?
Ottawa
[This is not my territory, but I believe some other primates do, as well as a bat and a lemur. I'd like to have a short article on this site about this interesting topic.]
Who knows the music in a Belgian television ad?
I'm looking for the name of the (classical) music used in an television commercial in Belgium during the 70's or 80's. The product advertised was called (I believe) "Vania pocket" and feature a group of women walking up a hill. [Vania is the name of a European menstrual pad.]
It's not much to go by, but maybe you can help me or point me in the right direction.
[Reply to me and I'll pass the information to the writer.]
Which actress appeared in the first American tampon television commercial?
Dear Sir,
Would you know the name of the actress who appeared in the first tampon commercial on American TV? I once heard it was a famous actress who today is a household name, but nobody else I've contacted seems to know for sure.
Could you help? [Does anyone know? See the first real person in an American print ad.]
Ohio, USA
Art exhibits change address
Dear Friends,
Art Mama Gallery has relocated and The Virago Series, my work about female images as well as my article, Sisterhood Is Global: Women's Internet Art are now located on that site. Please change your links/bookmarks as follows:
Art Mama: www.artmamagallery.com
Virago: www.artmamagallery.com/viragointro.htm
Article: www.artmamagallery.com/womensinternetart.htm
Please come and see the new site and check out the new additions!
My apologies for the inconvenience,
Lucinda Marshall
Like daughter, like MUM
Hello,
I just noticed this site on my daughter's list of recent sites visited and took a look.
I must admit I like the idea of what is looking like a fairly open forum on "women's issues."
I read the list of euphemisms for menstruation and found that was quite longer than I thought it would be.
I use a different one though, I simply say I'm out of action. I can't stand the mess of blood everywhere while having sex.
I love the doodads one. My mother calls nearly everything doodads including pads and tampons. I tell her it's that time of the month if necessary.
Anyway, I'm going to try to find time to look further into your site when I can.
Cheers
Your MUM is not hot, but . . .
Mr. Finley, you are a supremely cool person!
"Incredible Tassaway story," she calls this in the E-mail subject line
I was amazed to find this Web page by searching for Tassaway [menstrual cup; picture, history], the product that changed my life and my view of the menstrual "problem." For years I have wanted to share this story with someone, but could never imagine a magazine publishing it.
I cannot believe that I actually have a place to now tell my "story" which has been my "secret" all these years!
I started using Tassaways as soon as they came on the market here in Texas. From reading your history of the product, it must have been 1970. When I found they were being discontinued, I decided to stock up on a lifetime supply. I was only 27 years old, but I could not imagine going back to the use of those other PRIMITIVE products. I called every drugstore in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and I had people in several other cities searching drugstore shelves. Friends would go on vacation, accidentally come across a couple of boxes while in some distant place, and bring me a fantastic souvenir from their trip!
Remember, this was before Web pages and E-mail were even imagined, so there was no way to get information on where to purchase more. I eventually had about 40 boxes collected. [Tassaways came in boxes of several cups; I'll put the one the museum has on the site one of these days.]
But, alas, I saw that if I continued to toss away my Tassaways, my supply was going to run out before reaching menopause, so I began some "Conserve the Tassaways" techniques. I began reusing them. [Tassaways were advertised for one-time use - say TOSSaway.] I scrubbed the ridges with a toothbrush using Betadyne soap and soaked them in that solution overnight before reusing. I KNEW I was probably taking some kind of risk of infection, but I couldn't see how it could be so different from the way women reuse diaphragms. Of course, they would not last indefinitely, but I could make them last for several cycles before disposing of them. Toward the end, my standards of what was still "usable" became less and less strict!!
(Meanwhile, I searched for some NEW product. How is it possible that the KEEPER [Web site] remained unknown to me all those years? When INSTEAD [picture, Web site] came out, I tried it, but found that it would not stay in place for me. After several unfortunate experiences, I gave up on it.)
So, until reaching menopause at the age of 54 (finally!) I had my Tassaways to make my life easier. I think I am probably the ONLY woman in the world who used the menstrual cup for the majority of her menstruating years. I started my periods at the age of 11, using only pads until discovering Tassaways. I tried tampons, but found them to be so unreliable that I had to use pads and tampons. So, until the age of 27 - that would be 16 years - I managed with pads. Then for the next 26 (!) years I managed to make my supply of Tassaways last.
While my friends and work colleagues (I taught school for 30 years) were constantly running to the restroom to change pads or tampons, I just smiled and thought, "HA, HA, HA, I never have to worry about that like you do!" I only told my closest friends about my secret, and they were always so amazed and shocked. I could put one when my period started and leave it for 12 hours. I changed again in another 12 hours. After that I changed once a day for three more days, just to be certain.
Once I FORGOT and left the last one in a bit longer than intended. Needless to say, it was one of those chosen for quick disposal! BUT there was no damage.
Over the years I did have a few yeast infections, but no more that other women. I don't think the use of the Tassaway caused them. If it did, then I consider it a reasonable trade-off. The discomfort of treating a few yeast infections over the years could not compare to the comfort of my Tassaways. [One woman complained about the sharp edges on a News page on this site years ago.] (The yeast infections usually followed using an antibiotic.)
Pads and tampons are as primitive compared to menstrual cups as the manual typewriter is compared to this computer I am using right now. I am so happy that my life was made so much easier for all those years. I wish all women could discover this convenience.
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (Later this month more information will appear on the publisher's site, in Spanish.)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
Two weeks ago I mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.
